Papa Roach
Naked And Fearless EP
DCG/Interscope
22 June 2009

by Shane Holt

Ahahahahaha. I see what you were trying to do here, Jacoby Shaddix. With this here EP of acoustic re-workings of tracks from Metamorphosis, your recent bounceback album, you’re trying to add another tool to your nu-metal survivors’ kit. And on the one hand, it’s an admirable ambition to strive towards.

Shame that on the other hand, the end result is just such a load of old horseshit then, ain’t it?

Like their insectoid namesake scuttling out to feed on the corpses in the wake of a nuclear war, Metamorphosis marked Papa Roach’s survival of the nu-metal apocalypse by way of feasting on musical corpses pre-dating that of the doomed testosterone of their contemporaries. Like a zombie erupting from their musical graveyard, Papa Roach had risen to re-feed on metal fans’ sonic jugular once again, this time with a mawkishly simplistic take on Motley Crue-isms to replace the petulant chest-beating of Infest and their other early records.

Shaddix and co would’ve gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for this pesky acoustic EP. Without the thumping, clumsy-fuck hooks that a stack of amps and drop-D tuning can provide, Papa Roach’s flaws aren’t just more obvious, they all but strap a neon sign onto the band’s collective arse to advertise their shortcomings. Without a cloak of guitars to hide behind, the cringeworthiness of Shaddix’s – often hilariously – bad lyrics reaches the point where you’ll think you’ve developed a facial tick from the sheer number of times you’ll screw your face up in embarrassment at them. Let’s examine a few choice words from ‘Lifeline’, the EPs opener shall we?

“Is there anybody out there?
Can you pull me from this ocean of despair?
I’m drowning in the pain, breaking down again
Looking for a lifeline”

By the time you get through all three of the tracks in this release, you’ll be begging for a lifeline of your own. The only pain of Jacoby Shaddix you’ll be keen to hear about by this point would be his agonisied winces after having his balls slammed in a large and hefty thesaurus. At least then he’d also get a chance to expand his vocabulary.

Watch Thrash Hits TV: Papa Roach @ Download Festival 2009

Perversely, even stripped of nu-metal’s more masculine calling cards, Naked And Fearless exemplifies the very worst that particular sub-genre had to offer – gratuitously self-pitying lyrics, and musicianship greatly overestimating its own abilities. The end result here is something so sickeningly earnest that it could be used for the closing montage of one of those teenage American drama series where everyone cries the whole time in their giant mansions. In fact, by the time you read this one of these three tracks probably already has.

If you find anything amongst this squawking mess tugging at whatever blackened cords Thrash Hits readers have masquerading as heartstrings, then you’ve failed not just as a metal fan, but as a human being as well. Naked And Fearless has all the depth of flavour of a Pop-Tart, and provide even less musical nutrition than those slabs of sugared cardboard do as a breakfast substitute. For that reason – the sheer vapid emptiness at the very heart of this release -  Naked And Fearless is far darker and more soulless to listen to than a dozen of the blackest black metal records.

1/6

Sounds like: The universe laughing at you, endlessly.
Top tracks: ….?

Papa Roach – Naked And Fearless tracklisting
Lifeline
Had Enough
Carry Me